Iron County register., 1887-04-21

1
many, yes, most men, are to-day, ant
| visiting was common among all G
| them, for a man was not afraid to los
day nor Of making his peighbor los
one.
Another thing "T. P. R." must hav
forgotten, was that our tutors cautioned
US against "buck-ague" when aiming
at our first deer. / fired at my first I
square breast shot at one hundred
yards, and was SO afraid of buck-agu,
that sunk on my right knee and rest
ed the left elbow on the other. hat
only half charge for squirrel under I
ball one hundred and twenty-five te
the pound, so. of course, my deer went
off--went off with his tail up, too, bui
I said aloud, "You did not give me the
buck -ague!' Years afterward sold
ier handed me his Belgian rifle and ask
me to try some men in battery in our
front. From the chase to war seemed
SO easy and natural, that as my face
went to the cheek-plece. thought OF
my first deer and buck-ague. "By hell!
you got him." said the soldier; but /
passed the piece back in silence and
hurried away, wondering if we should
ever be ciyilized enough TO believe in
"the fatherhood of God and the BROTH
erhood of man." and scorn such brutal
ity. How is it that even those who
profess to be followers of the Prince of
Peace, SO often glory in the spirit that
prompts the Indian to bedaub and be-
deck himself in paint and feathers?
The "dividiDg up" began here at a
very early day. The countries from
which the old settlers came had been
SO badly divided already, that they had
to expatriate themselves to find homes
or else they came ere to anticipate
Others and prevent them from getting
homes. A man named Nathaniel Cot
fin entered many thousands of acres
by alternate forties and eighties. He
did not want to work any of it, but he
wanted to do a great deal OF good for
himself SO he got ahead of others with
his money and made them support him
in idleness and luxury as long as he
lived. I got my earliest lessons on the
land question from him. Some rode
horses to death in races to enter land.
Some were like poor old Daniel Boone,
who did so little good for himself; wi no
.>;c l.. l.
had cleared it. in Kentucky, and wac
in a similar way rendered homeless in
Missouri afterwards.
l sometimes get fighting mad" to
think what pack of fools we are, in
general, and what .hypocrites Chris
tians are, in particular, to countenance
and permit system of land holding
that would turn heaven into y hell,
and race of angels into race Of mer-
devils.
Men want more land than they can
work only to prevent others from
working, and if one man or class of
men, have a right to prevent others
from working, unless they will work
on their terms, SO have others. II I
had my way, I'd begin at the begin
ming and stop the whole business by
every man earn his own living
or die, and not give him the power to
the means of life and COM
pei others to support him. If we want
to understand all the changes made in
our day, we must not contemplate
them from such a fancy spot as Sylvan
Lake, but go to Mulberry Bend or
Helps HalfAcre aud look at the teem-
irg thousands who are Just as much
the products of our civilization as the
few Beechers. Gladstones, and Kaiser
Wilhelms. We have gone from bad
to worse here now, for fully three
fourths of the land is used for dividing
up. l hope that in Heaven they don't
divide up in this way, for if they do.
I'd about as soon risk my chances with
St. Nick, for dividing up has mighty
nigh made hell out of earth.
When Congress voted last winter to
spend $21 900, 900 by way of putting the
country in state of defense, they
ought, instead, to have voted on some
way enabling more men to get homes
to defend. The men who make those
who work divide up with those who
do not, want US, as a nation, to act like
an Irishman at Donnybrook fair. They
want US to put chip on our shoulder
or drag our coat on the ground and
dare somebody to knock it off or tread
on the tail; and if anybody should ac-
cept the banter these fellows would
want the man who had no homes to do
the fighting. while they themselves
stood back and patriotically speculated
in bonds.
In the name of common sense, what
is the Use to build steel ships, and arm
them with steel cannons, when two
thirds of the men we hire TO man them
are only foreign mercenaries; and
whose invention will, almost certainly,
render such ships and guns compare
tiyeiy useless i'm twelve months after
they are afoat? The Greeks, before
the Christian era, used to say that a
man without home was without
country, and it only took ten thousand
of them to defeat the whole army and
feet of Xerxes. Give me an army, If
all army were really ever needed, in
which every soldier had a home of his
own, and should succeed, in spite of